In light of the fact that swine flu cases have now been confirmed in Maryland and Virginia, with probable cases in DC, I thought I'd check out the symptoms (so I could avoid/send home sick kids, if nothing else.)
This is what I found:
http://doihaveswineflu.org/
Check it out. You'll be glad you did.
I heard on the radio a couple days ago that the average woman in America has 67 items in her purse. I like to believe that I'm not quite as high-maintenance as the women they were talking about, so I sat down to investigate. This is what I found:
A colleague of mine has a couple kids at the school and lives near several others, so she drives a few of the students to school every day. One of these students has been in my history class for the past two years (I teach two different classes, not because he failed), so I've gotten to know him pretty well. He's a very bright student, pretty quiet and very talented overall. He's the student that I really have to plan my lessons for, making sure that I'm challenging him enough.
Yesterday morning, this colleague reported that during their morning commute, they had been discussing whow they would take with them if they were stranded on a desert island. Apparently this student wanted to have me along "because she knows where everything is." When she reminded him that knowing geography might not be too crucial on a desert island, he told her that "Ms. Chamberlain just knows EVERYTHING."
I'm glad I've got someone fooled. :)
"Shady Acres today?" I read the note passed to me from Heather, all the way across Hofstetter's physics classroom. I spent most of the lunch periods my senior year running with Heather to Albertson's or the local convenience store / cafe for typical high school food. (It grosses me out thinking about the quantities of tater tots we ate that year. And I wish that were a Napoleon Dynamite reference, but it's not. We probably ate tater tots twice a week.)
As I remember it, my friendship with Heather went back to 10th grade Algebra 2. Mr. Daley's 3rd period class. We suffered through a lot during that class. His hour-long slideshow of his trip to Ireland, accompanied by him on the fiddle (remind me never to do that to my classes). A mandolin accompaniment to "y is equal to x plus or minus the square root of..." whatever the rest of quadratic formula is. We knew a lot of the same people and had all the same classes, and it was fairly natural for us to become friends. By our junior year, we were inseparable: Heather, Amanda and me. Shopping, road-tripping, late-night movie dates with Chuck. Powder puff football, prom, morp and weekly "study sessions" for AP U.S. History that usually turned into pool/dart-throwing contests. Heather was a great friend - smart, witty and always ready to have fun.
Then, about a year and a half after we graduated from high school and went our separate ways, Heather was diagnosed with sarcoma. You all don't need the details of the past four and a half years, except to know that through everything, she remained the happy and spirited and beautiful friend I knew. I'm pretty good at complaining about everything wrong in my life, but I never saw Heather do the same. I have been so blessed to have this wonderful woman (friend, example) in my life and I know she will missed tremendously by all who loved her. I know that Heather has moved on from the pain and trials of this life, but that she is living still in the next, and I know that she will be reunited again with her family and friends. I can't answer the "why" question that I've been asking for the past couple of weeks, but I do know that the Lord has a purpose and that he is watching out for both Heather and for those who are left to mourn her.
http://www.legacy.com/idahostatesman/Obituaries.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonID=126046508
Love you and miss you, Heather. See you soon.
As a child growing up in the LDS church, I've spent most of my life singing "I Love to See the Temple, I'm going there someday." Over Presidents' Day weekend, I decided to make the trek to Boise to finally make that real! I won't say much out of reverence for its sacredness, but it was a beautiful experience and I'm excited to spend more time there!
I also decided that if I was going to fly all the way out to Idaho, that I ought to just make a weekend trip of it, so I headed down to Utah on Saturday (Feb 14) to see some friends. Jessica & Reece picked me up from the airport and took me back to their apartment in the middle of a Utah blizzard to make breakfast and catch up. I've gotten really bad about taking pictures, so you get a lovely one of me and Jess at the Villa della Regina in Torino. Later on that day, I met up with Alicia, Sarah, Spencer and Amanda at the Timpanogos temple. What an incredible place! The rest of the evening / weekend, I spent with some of my favorite people: Damon, Amanda, Amy and Devon. For the first time in a long time, it was actually really hard for me to come back to DC.
I know, short frizzy hair = not a good look for anyone.
Typical. This is what I get for leaving my camera in Alicia's car. =)
Damon & Me.
Amanda & me.I was sitting in my classroom today, planning a lesson and previewing a documentary about Baroque art, and I decided to share with you all my favorite artist. (Little surprise that he's Italian...) I'm not much of an art historian or an art critic. All I know is that this man's art is phenomenal. He uses such intricate details that you actually believe what he's trying to portray. The look of determination David's eye before he raises the sling to slay Goliath. Pluto's hand digging into Proserpina's flesh, as if she were real instead of carved from marble. St. Theresa, a look of pain and ecstasy frozen upon her face. And my absolute favorite, Daphne caught in the midst of her transformation from nymph to laurel tree. Enjoy. And visit, please. There is nothing like seeing these in the round.
David
The Rape of Proserpina
The Ecstasy of St. Theresa
Apollo & Daphne
